“Thank God for Fleas”

Let’s put on our hats, have a cold drink, and share a few laughs with good friends. I’ll turn up the heat and we can pretend it’s summer!

I’ve been visiting around the blogosphere hoping for some inspiration today. My grandson hasn’t even supplied me with anything to write about! Kids – you just can’t count on ’em.

I don’t spend a lot of time talking about God. My relationship with Him is something I hold sacred. I don’t talk about sacred things lightly. But today I feel the need to mention Him and His goodness. We are beset day to day with challenges – some small and petty and others life-threatening. I have learned that these things don’t come from God – a lot of them are the result of our own bad choices. But, being a loving Father, He doesn’t interfere in our lives and take away those challenges or protect us from the consequences of our own actions. How would we learn and grow otherwise?

One of my favorite books is The Hiding Place by Corrie tenBoom. In it Corrie talks about her experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Her sister told her they must have gratitude even for life’s trials. Corrie’s response was that she could see no redeeming value to the fleas that plagued them – she could not be thankful for fleas. And then her sister points out that the fleas keep the guards from penetrating the building where they are housed and thus discovering their contraband Bible. Corrie responds “Thank God for fleas.”

I’m not sure I am ready to thank God for fleas, but in visiting other bloggers today I have been reminded that I could be plagued by challenges I have never had to face, that I am, indeed, blessed in so many ways. I have some difficult health problems. Today I am grateful that these came to me in my maturity and not when I had a small daughter to care for. So, if I have an infestation of fleas, I can be thankful that I do not also have rats, chiggers, or cockroaches.